During cable installation, cables may be routed through conduit and cable fittings for protection of the cables. FIG. 1 (Prior Art) is a diagram showing one such cable fitting where a cable is to make a bend. These fittings are commercially available and may be Crouse Hinds, Appleton, or other similar cable fittings. The cable fitting has a first opening 2 and a second opening 3. FIG. 2 (Prior Art) is a top-down diagram of the cable fitting of FIG. 1 that also shows an interior volume 4 of the cable fitting. FIG. 3 (Prior Art) shows the cable fitting of FIG. 1 after a cable 9 has been pulled through the cable fitting. Cable 9 is pulled through cable fitting 1 by routing the end of cable 9 through the first opening 2 of cable fitting 1, through interior volume 4 and then out through second opening 3 of cable fitting 1.
To facilitate insertion of a cable through a cable fitting, a roller support structure as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,419,136 to Martinez, may be utilized. Such a roller support structure is shown in FIG. 4 and includes a frame 11, a first side plate 12, a second side plate 13, a plurality of rollers 19-23, a plurality of j-shaped roller channels 14-18, mounting holes 24-27, and an anchor connection member 28. The frame 11 includes four mounting holes 24-27 that extend through frame 11. The first side plate 12 containing J-shaped roller channels 14-18 is attached to a first side of the frame 11. The second side plate 13 is attached to a second side of frame 11 opposite first side plate 12. Each of the plurality of rollers 19-23 has an axle and the axle is used to position a roller into each of the plurality of j-shaped roller channels 14-18. Each roller is secured between the first side plate 12 and a second side plate 13 by an axle extending from one channel in first side plate 12 to a corresponding channel in second side plate 13. The j-shaped roller channels are constructed such that the rollers form a bend radius or arc with the roller 19 and roller 23 positioned farther from the frame than roller 21 which may be positioned midway between roller 19 and roller 23 and closest to frame 11. Before a cable is pulled through the fitting, the roller support structure 10 is attached to the cable fitting. The roller support structure can be secured to cable fitting 1 using mounting holes 24-27 of frame 11 and attachment points 5-8 of cable fitting 1. Bolts may be inserted through each of mounting holes 24-27 located on frame 11 and then into each of the corresponding attachment points 5-8 of cable fitting 1.
After securing the roller support structure 10 to cable fitting 1, the cable 9 can be pulled through the first opening 2 of cable fitting 1, over rollers 19-23 and then out of second opening 3 of cable fitting 1. FIG. 5 (Prior Art) shows a frame 11 secured to a cable fitting 1 with a cable 9 that has been pulled through cable fitting 1 and is disposed above rollers 19-23. FIG. 5 also shows a first spacer 30 and a second spacer 31 between a cover plate plane 33 and frame 11. An inside bottom surface plane 32 is within interior volume 4 of cable fitting 1 at a location along the bottom surface of cable fitting 1 opposite cover plate plane 33. After cable 9 is pulled through cable fitting 1 as shown in FIG. 5, the rollers 19-23 can be removed and then roller support structure 10 can be removed from cable fitting 1. To remove rollers 19-23, the bolts attaching frame 11 to cable fitting 1 are removed and then first spacer 30 and second spacer 31 are removed from between frame 11 and cover plate plane 33. This allows roller support structure 10 to descend into the cable fitting and allows rollers 19-23 to be removed from the interior volume of the cable fitting. To remove rollers 19-23, the rollers must be lifted in the direction of cover plate plane 33 in order for the rollers to drop out of j-shaped roller channels 14-18.
In some cable installations rollers 19-23 can be removed without any difficulty. In other installations, the rollers can be difficult to remove. FIG. 6 (Prior Art) shows one such example where it is difficult to remove rollers 19-23 from within the interior volume 4 of cable fitting 1. FIG. 6 shows a frame 11 secured to a cable fitting 1 with a cable 9 that has been pulled through the fitting and is disposed above rollers 19-23. In this FIG. 6, the first and second spacers have been removed and roller support structure 10 has been lowered further into the cable fitting 1 and is positioned just above the inside bottom surface plane 32. Cable 9, which is disposed above rollers 19-23 within interior volume 4 of the cable fitting has also shifted towards inside bottom surface plane 32. The weight a large diameter cable may cause the cable to shift from a point closer to the cover plate plane 33 in FIG. 5 towards inside bottom surface plane 32. This movement of cable 9 makes it difficult to retrieve rollers 19-23 from the interior volume 4 of cable fitting 1. The rollers need to be lifted out of the j-shaped roller channels for removal and the weight of cable 9 may prevent the removal of the rollers 19-23 from the j-shaped roller channels. This may also happen when the cable 9 is a group of smaller diameter cables. A roller support structure that allows efficient extraction of rollers 19-23 from the interior volume of the cable fitting is desired.